God wants you to rest. You’ll need it for what’s ahead.

if you clicked on this video because you're feeling tired and like you need to rest but you feel guilty and lazy because it's not productive and this is leaving You Restless I want to offer you some encouragement today what you need to remember is that rest is a productive form of action it gives power when you take action so I'll just give you a quick analogy imagine you're out in these woods and you're hunting with a boat so you find a game Trail which is like a foot path that has been trotten down you can

identify this is where the animals are going to run past so you know where the animals are going to be you sit back in a hide and you have your bow ready to go you don't sit there with the bow Under full tension normally when you're shooting you hold your breath as well just before you take the shot because it allows you to steady your body and get an accurate shot if you did all those things the whole session sometimes you could be waiting up to 4 hours for the animal to come if you did

that you sat down straight away pulled the bow back held your breath and waited you die long before the animal came because you're holding your breath the bow would probably snap because you're holding the string under tension no instead you sit you're in the right place you've positioned Yourself by the game Trail you know what your focus is which is to wait for the animal then the bow is at rest and you're at rest you're basically doing nothing for 99% of those 4 hours that you're waiting for the animal you're just sitting waiting the bow

isn't under tension you're not focused you're just waiting you're at rest but that is an active rest because the moment that animal comes you pull the bow release the arrow and you get it so I would invite you if you're in the moment because the releasing of the arrow is brief intense and infrequent it's basically 1% of the whole hunting session but it's the 1% that matters and the 99% of rest is what allows that to happen so notice that there are a couple of things in place here the hunter is looking at the game

Trail you know he's focused on the right thing you can't have your back facing the game Trail and expect to turn around and you know see the animal you got to be focused on it and also he's not killing time those four hours he's not scrolling on Tik Tok you know cuz it's a bit boring staring at like the leaves on the ground waiting for an animal to come he's not scrolling on Tik Tok he's resting so for you if you're tired and you feel like laying in bed and resting that is actually productive but

the moment you get your phone out and start scrolling your eyes are off of the you know off of the focus you've taken your eyes off that game Trail and our life is like this opportunities are always coming you might be seeing a lack of opportunities in your life you think oh nothing's opening up to me but are you looking at the game Trail or are you scrolling on Tik Tok you know there's an active way to wait for opportunities so I would say if it's time for you to take action draw the bow back

and take the shot but you feel tired do it anyway because it's brief if you really take true action it won't last long you know and then you can go back to rest and you'll find if you're in that restful phase you might be bored and you always want the other one when it's time to take action you feel so tired and you'd like to have rest when you're restful you're bored and you'd like to have something to take action on so you need to be present and realize that there's a season for both things

but you can kind of miss the point on all of it if you're not even looking at the game Trail so these opportunities these animals always walk down this path they always are available to you but how easy would it be for the hunter to lapse concentration even thinking about something he doesn't even need to be scrolling on his phone he could just think oh what's that over there and then the animal's gone and he's missed the shot so you have to be perspec you have to be looking at your environment seeing what opportun what

opportunities are presenting themselves so identify in your life what is the season if it's the season for rest rest fully don't be under tension cuz we all tend to to live like this we run around with all of these tasks to do 90% of them aren't the the task in hand do you know what I mean so I'm using the metaphor of the Archer so the way I do this is I use a combination of prayer meditation and rest and the the reason I do this is because it helps you focus on the game Trail

it focuses you on the opportunities you're looking for so I'll keep the prayer very brief I'll say something like heavenly father I'm very grateful for all of the opportunities you've put into my life mainly the growth of this YouTube channel um the opportunities I'm able to grow in faith on my rcia course I pray that you keep revealing to me the path I should walk to take these opportunities and use them to the best of my ability that's me looking at the game Trail if I just said I'm going to rest now I'll have a

little scroll on Tik Tok and then go to bed I'm not looking at what I'm after so gratitude is a way of identifying the goal you know the thing that you actually like and you want to like increase in your life so that's looking at the game Trail we've got our eyes on the prize that's prayer I keep that brief then I meditate which is doing what the hunter is doing which is just looking I've identified the game Trail and now I'm just looking and if you wait long enough an animal's going to run past

a thought an idea an opportunity something will open up to you it could be in your own mind a thought that comes to you or it could be you're walk down the road and if you have that mindset of I'm open someone will say something oh can you just help me with this just a random person can you help me with this if you're scrolling Tik Tok you'll say no they won't even ask you cuz you're distracted they ask you you say yes where does that lead you don't know so that's the first two steps

brief prayer of gratitude and sort of to focus the mind then you meditate then if I fall asleep during that process then I was meant to sleep a lot of people beat themselves up if they're meditating and they fall asleep I just think you're tired you know that's the door that's opened to you that was the opportunity what am I meant to do like we sometimes struggle to identify what our next step is and then you fall asleep oh there it was do you know what I mean you've been sleep deprived for all this time

and it's easy to even do good habits in a way that is tension ing the bow unnecessarily I saw a little Tik Tok video of a guy saying just want to check it was a joke just want to check that everybody else is doing this cold shower waking up at 5:00 a.m. ashw Gander he listed about a hundred different good habits oh and having a wife kids and going to work it was a joke that we've instilled so many good habits and they can become action that is unnecessarily tensioning the boat you might just need

to rest and that's okay and that might be the most productive thing you do and it's funny because I you know I prescribe these things gratitude journaling cold showers time in the gym meditation they're all good but if the hunter did that so the Hunter's there waiting for the animal and he starts writing in his gratitude Journal I'm so grateful that I found a game Trail where the animals just keep coming past and I get loads of you know animals he's mys it so even a good habit is not the right thing to do so

that might be the case for you you might need to just you know cease for a bit and be in a restful phase so that's my invitation so a couple of Bible verses that I find interesting Luke 5:116 but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed or Matthew 14:23 after he had dismissed them he went up on on a mountain side by himself to pray so I find it interesting that even Jesus the son of God so he's two natured he's God and man had to rest you'd think if he had if he's all

powerful which he is he would just run around doing Miracles all day long you know hustle culture just getting after it but he didn't he did some Miracles he did his work then he withdrew and rested and and if Jesus had to do that if God had to do that surely we have to because he was embodying God in the form of Jesus the son of God was embodying human nature you know he's God and human so that's a lesson I just find that interesting you know even this perfect example of a man meditated he

prayed he rested and then went back to it and this happened frequently so I see prayer plus Meditation Plus potentially sleep if you fall asleep during this process as perspicacious rest you're paying attention and resting and the moment an opportunity shows up a moment the correct action is required you will take it but if you do distracted rest it's not rest at all and you won't be able to act on it when the time comes so if it's time for Action in your life I would invite you to take action and if it's time for

rest in your life then do that but don't feel lazy or guilty that you're doing one and not the other because there's a season for both and you have to identify and if you don't know what the action is then the answer is rest so I hope that helps speak to you soon